Greater New Orleans

An Interview With Troy Jackson

1) Tell
us about yourself - what do you like to write? How long have you written? What
prompted you to start writing?
My name is Troy Jackson,and
I have been interested in writing ever since I was a child. As a child of
the 80's and 90's I tended to gravitate towards all-things fantasy and
action-oriented. My writing follows this closely. However,
professionally I would say I have only written for the past couple of years
when I finally decided to put some of the crazy ideas in my head onto paper.

2) What types of books do you like to read?I love novels of all kinds, except maybe Westerns and Romance. Those
just aren't my thing...

3) Do you have another author that you
model yourself after?
Writing-style wise I wouldn't say I
do, but one thing I have always followed in both reading and writing - my
attention span is short and so I enjoy short chapters, a la James Patterson and
Dan Brown.

Troy Jackson, Author

4) What inspires you to write?
Ideas for great stories have swirled around in my brain for decades,
ranging from futuristic tales to "what if" stories. All it
takes is for a great piece of music, or a movie, or a novel I have read to get
the juices going.

5) When a story idea pops into your head, how long does it typically take to
write it (from start to finish)?
Depends, of course, on what it is. A short story might pop into my
head and I might write it in a few hours, or an entire novel may take me years
to finish.

6) What did you find to be the most difficult part of the writing process?
Easiest?

Most difficult is definitely the
editing part. I loathe editing. Easiest would be plotting out the
idea. It's when I get to be the most creative and splash it all onto
paper.

7) Tell
us about your book and why you incorporated Confucian beliefs.

My novel, The Elementals, is
a tale of good versus evil where I take actual events that occurred in ancient
China, some 2200 years ago, and add my own supernatural twist to it. Back
then, the teachings of Confucius were just beginning to take hold, and were
quickly growing popular. What I find fascinating is that many of the
beliefs in Confucianism are steadfastly held by Christians, such as strength
within the family, loyalty, and respecting your elders. What many do not
realize is that Confucius believed in what we know of today as 'The Golden
Rule' (as he said, "Do not do to others what you do not want done to
yourself"). During the time period that I write about, during the
reign of the First Emperor of China, Confucianism was alive and
flourishing. However, it promoted free-thinking, and the Emperor began to
suppress it, believing that it was a direct threat to his strict authority.

8) Where can readers find
Elementals? Do you have plans for a second book?

From the very beginning I knew that The
Elementals would be a trilogy. So I am in the process (albeit slowly)
of writing the second book, which I hope to have completed by the end of 2013,
and book three done by the end of 2014 or early 2015.

The Elementals can be found online at most retailers, such as Amazon,
Barnes and Noble, etc. The easiest way to look it up is by author name. Here
are a few links:

Teena L Myers is the author of Finding Faith in the City Care Forgot; a freelance writer; editor of NOLA.com's Faith, Beliefs and Spirituality blog; member of the Southern Christian Writers Guild and The Northshore Literary Society. She is also a certified Belief Therapist and credentialed minister with the Assemblies of God. Teena lives on the west bank of New Orleans and attends Hosanna Church with her husband who has ministered to children for thirty years. To learn more about Teena and read some of her longer teaching works visit teenalmyers.com